Jingle Bell Rock feat. Metric, Tokyo Police Club et al. - Live At The Burton Cummings Theatre

Jingle Bell Rock was a mix bag of an affair.

After braving the oppressive deep freeze that is Winnipeg at the moment, I arrived at The Burt right at seven (the official start) intending to catch ex-DFA1979 Sebastien Grainger and his new band The Mountains. My friend and I grabbed 10th row seats (floor was rush seating), and sat down just in time to see the last seconds of Grainger's set. WTF? we wondered. Confused, we triple-checked our tickets and they, of course, read 7:00 p.m.

An informative bartender clarified: the show had been bumped up an hour earlier than originally scheduled. We had no idea! The website said 7 and our tickets read 7, so we showed up at 7. Plus, we missed DJ Mike Relm’s set. 2/5 acts down before we even got there!


Still shivering (it was cold inside the Burt) and kinda pissed off, I tried cheering up once The Dears (above photo), all seven of them, took the stage. The septet played a healthy mixture of new and old to a thawing-out, unresponsive crowd. The sound was crisp and I liked some of what I heard yet the band seemed just as frozen as the audience (I wore my jacket all the way until the end of TPC) so this further added to the evening’s overall dismal feeling.



The first half of Tokyo Police Club’s set was uninspired, and I was bet-the-farm certain the whole Jingle Bell Rock soiree would amount to a colossal disappointment. About halfway, though, the band must have melted because the second half of their set was fluid and terrific. Just like that, this young indie-rock quintet morphed into a mobile, cohesive unit and frontman David Monks, with his slightly-distorted vocals and feverish guitar playing, proved he is more than capable of dazzling big crowds (by now the venue was almost full).


Now I have to warn you before you read on: I am not a fan of Metric. I was there to see Grainger, The Dears, and TPC. I have tried several times to get into Metric’s sassy neo-disco pop stylings, but always glaze over when I hear their stuff.

However, I was deeply curious about their live act, having read and heard first-hand reports of its electric awesomeness. I was really hoping to be won over. Unfortunately though, Metric and I just didn’t click. Sure Emily Haines is a formidable front-woman who oozes confidence and sensuality with each song (does she always wear such short dresses? Zounds!), but there’s something about this collective that I’m musically indifferent to. I’m not exactly sure what it is - I suppose I find their music just not, umm, fun.

But, looking around at the enchanted, hip-swaying crowd clearly enjoying themselves on this absurdly cold night, I was definitely in the minority.

Infinite Playlist: MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

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Let's Make A Cake

Martin Sexton will be at the Burt on April 15th.

Jeremy Fisher at the Park Theatre on February 2nd.

Luke Doucet and the White Falcon also play there, but on March 10th.

The Fugitives will rock the party there on February 26th.

And finally, good ol' Bryan Adams is playing an all-acoustic show on February 13th at the Pantages. I think the first compact disc I ever owned (it was a gift) was one of his, which is frankly hilarious. I've come a long way.

Jingle Bell Rock tonight! Tune in tomorrow for Ansel-Adams-worthy pictures, insightful comments and maybe even some rhetorical questions.

Infinite Playlist: Silence

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Night Windows

Couple things to note:

Presale password for The Weakerthans' April 17th show at the Burton Cummings Theatre is tundra.

That 1 Guy is at the Pyramid on February 25th.

Secondhand Serenade is at the Garrick on January 25th.

Kerri Woelke opens for Mr. Pine on January 2nd at Aqua Books.

Also, just a quick reminder: you've got about a week and a half left to email me your top 10 albums of the year list. If this is the first time you've read about this, click here for full details or scroll down a bit.

I've received several so far and they look awesome (thanks to everyone).

Infinite Playlist: Rah Rah - Going Steady

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If There Is A God, I Know He Likes To Rock

Winnipeg's greatest indie export The Weakerthans are hitting 21 cities across the nation during its 2009 Rolling Tundra Revue Tour, making a hometown pit stop at the Burton Cummings Theatre on April 17. The peripatetic lads will be joined throughout the tour by The Constantines plus a couple more TBA acts. Tix Monday.

Also, The Dude's least-favourite band The Eagles are soaring through town, landing at the MTS Centre on March 13th. According to ticketmaster, ticket prices range from $96 to an extraordinary $239 (happy budget-adjusting!), but as a small consolation, this is being heralded as a "no-fee event" meaning you won't be charged "convenience" fees.

Greg Crowe & The Scarlet Union play the Pyramid on December 18th.

The Waking Eyes are there on December 20th.

Mr. Pine's January 2nd cd release now has a venue: Aqua Books.

Infinite Playlist: Silence

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11 Questions With Greg MacPherson

If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing local singer-songwriter Greg MacPherson's intelligent, at times politically-driven music nor catching his electrifying shows round town, then, well, you're really missing out on one of our city's prodigial talents. At the moment, Greg is busy penning tunes for his much-anticipated follow-up to 05's Night Flares; however, he took some time out of his busy schedule to answer 11 of my interest-revealing and (at times) daft questions.

By taking part, Greg revealed he hasn't seen The Dark Knight (but has seen The Transporter 3), doesn't watch tv, and is currently reading a Doysteovsky novel that isn't Crime and Punishment!

Thanks to Greg for doing this. [If you're unfamilair, he's the spirited musician on my blog banner, far left].

1. Where are you right now?

I'm in Winnipeg at my place, spending a few hours this afternoon learning a song I was asked to cover for a friend's book launch this Wednesday evening. (Mykael's note: I haven't had the chance to publish this until just now, so this book launch already happened).

2. Where is the best venue in Winnipeg to play a show?

That depends on the size and kind of show you want to put on I suppose. I often play the West End Cultural Centre because it has a good sound system, a reasonable capacity and I like the people there. Of the smaller venues I think that the Royal Albert has the most soul; it's dirty, loud and a little dangerous sometimes, good conditions for rock and roll.

3. Who is the best Winnipeg-based band (other than your own, of course)?

Pip Skid. He's not a band but he's certainly one of the most exciting artists in the city... he's uncompromising, intelligent, funny, thoughtful and unpredictable.

4. What is your favourite Radiohead record?

I don't like Radiohead enough to know that. They're way more Beatles than Rolling Stones and I'm firmly in the Rolling Stones camp myself.

5. Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert?

I don't watch TV, I think it's a waste of time.

6. Where is your favourite local place to eat?

Monticchio.

7. What was the last great concert you saw?

Birdapres at Lo Pub last night.

8. Is The Dark Knight Best Picture worthy?

Somehow I haven't seen it yet... I hear from reliable sources that it's better than Transporter 3, which I have seen and can vouch for.

9. What are your top three all-time favourite records?

That's pretty hard to answer... I think Silkworm's Developer, The For Carnation's Self-Titled record, and the Clash's Sandinista are pretty high up there though.

10. What book(s) are you currently reading?

Dostoevsky's The Insulted and Injured

11. And finally…who's your favourite New Kid on the Block (Donnie, Danny, Joey, Jordan, or Jonathan)?

That's not even worth thinking about.

Infinite Playlist: The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I

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Out Of Cape Cod Tonight

I've been a bit neglectful with my show announcements these past few days (sorry, busy schooling), so you're probably aware of most of these already. Here's a quick recap anyways:

The Lytics are at the Pyramid on December 17th.

Sick City rock the Garrick on December 21st.

Jazz vocalist Kurt Elling is at the Burt on May 23rd.

Agent Orange play the Albert on March 1st.

Speaking of the Albert, their New Year's Eve lineup features The Geek Street Band, Big Trouble in Little China, and American Flamewhip.

Speaking of New Year's Eve, those looking to stop, collaborate and take in the new year with Vanilla Ice can do so at Blush Ultraclub. I wonder if he still plays 'Ice, Ice, Baby'...man, if I still owned To The Extreme and had a tape player, I'd be blasting that right now.

Speaking of early 90s music nostalgia, Boys II Men are the Burt on February 21st.

Infinite Playlist: Vampire Weekend - S/T

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Painting Over Silence Presents....The Best Records Of 2008 Blog Readers Poll

For audiophiles, cinema buffs, and possibly even book lovers, December often marks the laboured and joyful construction of year-end best-of lists. These ubiquitous lists usually adopt a Top 10 format with #1 being, naturally, the best of that art form over the past 365.

As an avid music blogger constructing these best-of lists is, without a doubt, the musical highlight of my year. In a week or so, I’ll dive head first through my music collection, taking note of each and every record I posses that has been released this year, a glint of manic glee in my eyes. Then, the intense listening and whittling will begin, eventually culminating into an easy-to-read, I hope, Top 10 list.

This year, I invite you to take part in all the zany fun that comes with list-making. Here’s how it’ll work:

Email me, by December 21, a list of your favourite records released between January 1, 2008 and, uh, December 21st, 2008, I guess. I will compile all the results and, on December 22nd, publish the Top 10 Albums of the Year…as voted by Painting Over Silence blog readers.

A few things:

1. I realize not everyone will have ten favourite records released in 2008. That’s okay. The minimum criteria is one and the maximum is ten. So, if Vampire Weekend’s summery good-time-of-a-pop-record is the only album you really liked this year, email me.

2. Order matters…to an extent. The top album on your list gets three points; the second best two; 3-10 are awarded one point. If you only liked one album this year, it gets three points.

3. Feel free to write something about that album, but please keep it short - a sentence or two. For example, say you loved MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular. Your comment about it could be succinct “Incandescent!” or longer “I played this album in an eternal loop for nine weeks…and I’m still not sick of it”. Write-ups are optional. If you want to just submit a list, that’s cool with me.

4. If you do write a comment about an album AND that album makes the final top 10 cut, I’ll be posting all comments about that record. However, out of respect to privacy, I’ll just write your first name. If you don’t want that, then PLMK and I’ll write “Anonymous”.

5. Please do not send attachments. Simply paste your list and the optional comments in the body of an email.

6. My email is on the right side, under “About Me”.

Happy list constructin’ !

***
The Liptonians rock the Lo Pub this Friday, the 5th.



Infinite Playlist: Kings of Convenience - Quiet Is The New Loud

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